Mercury 20 Gallery
25 Grand Ave. (at Broadway)
Oakland CA 94612
Margaret Chavigny
Laura van Duren
Confluence
Exhibition dates: April 3ﾖApril 25 2009
Opening Reception: Friday April 3 from 6ﾖ9pm (in conjunction with Oakland Art Murmur)
Meet the artists for wine/hors d’oeuvres/discussion: Saturday April 4 from 12ﾖ4pm
Margaret Chavigny Blossom painting 20"x20" 2009
Margaret Chavigny is a mixed media painter who works with collage acrylics beeswax oils and alkyd on panels. Attentive to shifting boundaries between order and chaos intention and chance knowing and not knowing the artist creates complex surfaces with multi-layered patterns. Interconnections ﾖ nerves pathways growth and fragility ﾖ are part of her primary vocabulary. In her latest body of work Chavigny uses organic forms and hot color contrapuntally discovering symmetries depth of shadows and reflection. Chavigny’s work undulates with vibrant pinks and reds that evoke sensations of the body inside.
Laura van Duren Sugar Ladder sculpture 2009
Sculptor Laura van Duren has created ladders made of sugar bronze and wood and intertwined them with large ceramic pods and trees that seem to have a life of their own. Van Duren continues to explore the metaphorical imagery of trees and ladders to address themes of change regeneration and the sacredness of nature. The figure is ever present in her work. Cast iron branches become legs that support a ceramic pod-like body holding a transparent ladder made of sugar. Permanence and fragility exist side by side in this unique interplay of materials.
In the Backspace: A group exhibition featuring current painting photography sculpture and mixed media from gallery artists.